In my previous post, I mentioned that the 1st District Court of Appeal had ruled that attorney fee schedules violated state law.

But the Court of Appeal also ruled back in March in the above referenced case, that the workers comp system was an adequate exclusive remedy, Ms. Goldberg said in her article.

The State Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction to review the decision, and said in its ruling that, “after further consideration and hearing oral argument in this case, we have determined that we should exercise our discretion and discharge jurisdiction.”

I am willing to work with any broker, carrier, or employer interested in saving money on expensive surgeries, and to provide the best care for their injured workers or their client’s employees.

Ask me any questions you may have on how to save money on expensive surgeries under workers’ comp.

I am also looking for a partner who shares my vision of global health care for injured workers.

I am also willing to work with any health care provider, medical tourism facilitator or facility to help you take advantage of a market segment treating workers injured on the job. Workers’ compensation is going through dramatic changes, and may one day be folded into general health care. Injured workers needing surgery for compensable injuries will need to seek alternatives that provide quality medical care at lower cost to their employers. Caribbean and Latin America region preferred.

Coming back around to the constitutionality of aspects of the various state workers’ comp laws, an article by David De Paolo last week, suggested that rather than corporate America dismantling workers’ comp, it is the courts who are actually doing so.

David says that state supreme courts will be the ones doing the dismantling this year, piece by piece.

A week and a half ago, I wrote that the Oklahoma WC statute relating to the permanent partial disability deferral provisions of the state’s workers compensation statutes of 2013, was struck down in a 7-2 decision.

And David also reported in the same article, that the 1st District Court of Appeals in Florida said that the state’s statutory limits on the payment of attorneys for injured workers was unconstitutional.

So while ProPublica and others rightly or wrongly accuse corporate America, the Koch Brothers, ALEC, ARAWC, the Illuminati, Martians, and anyone else we left out, it is the men and women who wear black robes who are striking down the workers’ comp laws in their states.

Is this a coincidence? Is this a vast conspiracy of right-wing jurists and those who put them on the bench? That is hard to say because we don’t know these people at all, who appointed them, and what their individual political motives are.

But if these decisions are any indication, the courts are ruling more in favor of injured workers, than their employers.

If you read De Paolo’s article and the cases linked to them, as well as the OK case, you will see that the courts are generally siding with workers.

What does this mean?

Well, it is too early to tell, but if these trends continue this year, 2016 may be the year the injured worker gets a little break. But we still have laws, regs, and rules in place that are holding back workers from getting the best health care available, at lower cost, no matter where that happens to be, even if it is not within the borders of their state or the country.

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma struck down yesterday parts of that state’s Workers’ Compensation law.

In a 7-2 decision, the Court’s ruling invalidated the permanent partial disability deferral provisions of the state’s workers compensation statutes of 2013.

Justices on the Court said that deferring permanent partial disability payments if an injured worker returns to work was unconstitutional.

According to Justice Noma Gurich, who wrote for the majority, “an injured employee who returns to work receives no compensation for the physical injury sustained and no compensation for a reducing in future earning capacity, upending the entire purpose of the workers’ compensation system,”

Two other Justices, Tom Colbert and Joseph Watt,said that the decision does not go far enough “to cure the Legislature’s unconstitutional scheme” and hinting that other provisions could have been tackled in the ruling.

The decision that led to the Court’s finding, involved four cases filed with the state’s Workers Compensation Commission by workers who were injured on the job.

In at least one case, officials improperly relied on American Medical Association guidelines for evaluating the extent of permanent impairment to a worker, according to the article.

An attorney who represented two workers in the case said that, “it is another example of the court having to correct a poorly written law.”

However, the president and CEO of the State Chamber of Oklahoma said that he was disappointed with the decision and believes the court should defer to the Legislature.

“Oklahoma workers and employers both benefit from an administrative rather than court-based system,” Fred Morgan said in a statement.

“Both groups are harmed when the court continues to act like an unelected legislature, overturning the will of the people through their elected representatives.”

Morgan’s comments are typical of Republican and conservative views when issues such as these are decided against them and their right-wing agenda, which is to return the nation to the 19th century, economically and politically.

They decry “activist judges” when decisions are rendered that upend their reactionary ideology and goals, but declare that the Courts are carrying out the will of the people when they rule in their favor.

What is the bottom-line here?

Workers’ compensation is increasingly being challenged, yet the industry itself refuses to yield to new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing improvements in the treatment and care of injured workers, and allows the Courts or legislatures to pick apart aspects of the laws that either hurt workers or hurt employers, but never do they consider what the workers want.

Instead, some are content to put their words in workers’ mouths, and declaring that injured workers will not seek surgery outside the US. Were they ever asked? No, and if it was up to many in the industry, it never will. So things will only get worse, not better.

The Denver Business Journal today published an article by Steve Doss, VP of Commercial Lines at CCIG.

Here are the key takeaways from Conning, a Connecticut-based investment management company for the insurance industry:

Accident frequency has increased. A stronger U.S. economy has meant more inexperienced workers have joined the workforce, so high-hazard occupations like transportation and construction have seen increases in work-related injuries since 2012. For example, non-fatal work-related construction injuries jumped 9.5 percent from 2012 to 2013. Also, as older employees work longer, the number of accidents among those 65 and older rose 18.5 percent from 2012 to 2013.

Evidence of cost-shifting. The Affordable Care Act may be driving physicians and hospitals to “leak” group health cases into the workers’ compensation system, where they can charge more for the same services than under a group health contract, according to Conning.

For those of you not familiar with workers’ compensation, and those of you who are, what each of the bullet points mean, in simple terms is this:

More accidents,

Degree of accident injury increasing and,

Cost-shifting is occurring.

Isn’t time to stop and realize that whatever programs are implemented, whatever analytical or predictive modeling techniques are utilized, whatever the so-called “experts” say is the cause of this or that problem, whatever so-called “reform” or work comp alternative is attempted, wouldn’t it be prudent to think outside the box, and outside the borders of your limited minds?

Schopenhauer said the following:

“Every man takes the limits of his field of vision for the limits of the world”

Those of you who will not listen to other ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may be, have limited your field of vision and taken them as the limit of the world. The world is globalizing, health care included.

Aerospace technology will very soon allow us to travel to any part of the world in under four hours. Don’t believe me? Ask Boeing why they are running commercials that tout that very same possibility.

Those who cite judges as saying no to medical travel must ask yourselves this question: Do doctors sentence people to death? (By that I mean execution, not natural death from disease or incompetence)

Those who say the laws won’t allow it, should know that laws can be changed, and laws written in the era of the horse and buggy should not dictate to the post-modern, jet-age, and soon-to-be sub-orbital space plane age. Would you like to live under the laws of Caesar or Charlemagne?

And finally, those who say the injured workers won’t go abroad to get better medical care, have you ever asked them, or are you just putting your words in their mouths?

Methinks you all doth protest a bit too much for the sake of injured workers and myself. Look in the mirror and ask yourselves why workers’ comp is failing. The answer is staring right back at you.

As I mentioned this morning to a good friend, I normally shy away from writing about California work comp issues, but the following article by Stephanie Goldberg, is indicative of how the legal system has been corrupted to the extent that benefits are denied to injured workers when it is proved they are necessary to deal with their injuries, especially those that leave the worker unable to be gainfully employed.

In other words, the courts have helped the employers screw the workers once again, and this is not coming from ProPublica/NPR.

From what I have heard about the IMR process, not all of the reviewers are equipped or knowledgeable to review cases, and they only look at medical records (which by one account had been changed), so the process is unfair, no matter what the court said.

Workers’ comp is being undermined from within and without. It is only a matter of time until it it is completely gutted and done away with. That is the fault of stupid and greedy people, but it is also our fault for choosing leaders who allow this to happen because instead of looking out for the people, they look out for the interests of the wealthy and powerful.

Quotes

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

– Muhammad Ali

“If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small..”

– Azim Premji

“Those who say your dreams are ridiculous have given up on theirs.”

– Unknown

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

– Thomas Carlyle

“As the work is done for the employer, and therefore ultimately for the public, it is a bitter injustice that it should be the wage-worker himself and his wife and children who bear the whole penalty.”

– President Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

To permit every lawless capitalist, every law-defying corporation, to take any action, no matter how iniquitous, in the effort to secure an improper profit and to build up privilege, would be ruinous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to secure in the industrial world the spirit of democratic fair dealing.

– Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

– John Kenneth Galbraith

“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges… which are employed altogether for their benefit.”

– Andrew Jackson

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it’s reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

– Abraham Lincoln

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

“Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.”

– Karl Marx

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, NOT on fighting the old, but on BUILDING the NEW.”

– Socrates

“Every man takes the limits of his field of vision for the limits of the world”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”

– Robin Williams

“There can be no equality or opportunity if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with.”

– Woodrow Wilson

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”

– John Stuart Mill

“The masters of the government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States.”

– Woodrow Wilson

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health [care] is the most shocking and inhuman[e]…”